PRIMAL FEAR frontman Ralf Scheepers commented on his experience as a background vocalist on the recent ROCK MEETS CLASSIC European tour during an interview focusing on his new self-titled solo debut:

“It was a new experience,” Scheepers says. “Being a background vocalist is totally different if you’re used to standing up front, but in the end it was a lot of fun. Sometimes I thought ‘I hope nobody from the metal scene recognizes me up here…’ but in the end I’m fine with it and there’s absolutely no reason to complain. It was a great experience, and I can say I did the backing vocals for IAN GILLAN (laughs).”

Click here for more. Go to this location for an interview with Primal Fear bassist MAT SINNER about Rock Meets Classic.

Scheepers new solo album, going under the SCHEEPERS moniker, will be released on February 18th in Europe and February 15th in North America

Scheepers final tracklisting includes:

'Locked In The Dungeon'

'Remission of Sin'

'Cyberfreak'

'The Fall'

'Doomsday'

'Saints of The Rock'

'Before the Dawn'

'Back on the Track'

'Dynasty'

'The Pain Of The Accused'

'Play With The Fire'

'Compassion'

The song 'Remission Of Sin' can exclusively be listened in full in streaming on the Frontiers Web radio here.

Following is the Frontiers Records press release:

Ralf Scheepers has built himself quite a reputation for being one of the finest German heavy metal singers. With a career spanning three decades (he debuted with TYRAN PACE's Eye To Eye album in 1983), Scheepers sung on true Power Metal manifesto releases such as Gamma Ray’s first three albums, before starting Primal Fear in 1997, with Mat Sinner.

His voice is high-pitched and tenor-esque and his abilities were often compared to some of the finest hard rock and heavy metal singers ever (from Rob Halford to Ronnie James Dio and Ian Gillan). Both HELLOWEEN and JUDAS PRIEST considered him as their possible next lead singer.

Over the years Ralf wrote and collected a few tracks that did not fit exactly in the Primal Fear concept. As often happens, he had just been waiting for the right chance to present itself and that happened when himself, his buddy Mat Sinner and Frontiers Records President Serafino Perugino sat together and discussed plans for the future in… 2007! Over three years later and the results are finally here and in Scheepers’ words “I’m really proud of the result!”

Ralf Scheepers’ artistic intention was to please the existing PRIMAL FEAR fan base, but he also wanted to add some surprises and include as much variation as he could in the recording. So he went ahead and covered one of his own favourite - but untypical Judas Priest songs 'Before The Dawn' and for the first time, Ralf played all instruments on a song, except the fantastic guitar solos added by Victor Smolski (RAGE). 'Compassion' is another special track with a very positive vibe, recorded only with acoustic instruments. Two of the songs were composed with former Primal Fear guitarist Stefan Leibing, while GAMMA RAY’s Kai Hansen added guitar on 'The Pain Of The Accused'. HALFORD’s Metal Mike played lead-guitar on the album opener 'Locked In The Dungeon'. One more highlight is the vocal duet with Tim “Ripper” Owens on 'Remission Of Sin'.

Additional guest appearances include Sander Gommans (ex-AFTER FOREVER), Snowy Shaw (KING DIAMOND, THERION) and Scheepers Primal Fear band mates Magnus Karlsson, Alex Beyrodt and Mat Sinner! The album was mixed and mastered by Achim Koehler and produced by Mat Sinner.

(Live photo by Carl Begai)